Make-Ahead Pancake Casserole Breakfast

My boys absolutely love pancakes, so I’ve been trying to find ways to use them in other breakfasts. So when I came across this recipe in the Southern Living magazine, I knew we just had to give it a try.

This is another breakfast that can be made the night before and then baked in the morning after making a streusel topping that takes only about 5 minutes to put together. As we started making this, we realized how much it would yield, so we decided we would prepare it and bring it over to Justin’s parents for a weekend breakfast.

With five adults and two kids eating this for breakfast, there were still leftovers. It reheated once pretty well, but I don’t think it would be good again after that. This recipe took a bit more work than the Make-Ahead French Toast, but we liked this better. I wasn’t sure how well it would come out with covering the pancakes in liquid overnight, but it wasn’t too soggy at all.

I also got to try out the Bee’s Wrap 3-piece Pack in Mimi’s Purple Clover Print from Southern Kitchen that I received a couple weeks ago. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this since I’ve never used a beeswax cover like this, but they worked really well! Justin didn’t realize that there was liquid in the pan, and had to move it once or twice in the refrigerator and lifted only one side a couple times and it never leaked. I have always hated plastic wrap, even before trying to cut down on waste in the kitchen, because it always stuck to itself and didn’t work well.

The first thing to do is mix up the pancake batter. This recipe uses buttermilk pancakes, which is slightly different than my normal go-to pancake recipe. I’ve used buttermilk a few times now, and find it easier to buy the powder mix since I don’t use it often enough to buy it in liquid form since it would go bad too quickly.

Start by mixing the dry ingredients for the pancakes together in a mixing bowl. I like to use my stand mixer, but you could use a hand mixer as well.

Since the recipe calls for 3 cups of buttermilk, and I needed to stir it up by mixing powder and water, Justin suggested to do it in the blender, which was a genius idea! I added 3 cups of water and the required amount of powder and set it to puree.

Add all of the liquid ingredients for the pancakes in with the dry ingredients and stir until it forms a batter. Gently stir the butter in last, and know that it’s ok if there are a few lumps left in the batter.

When I make my regular pancake recipe, I use a flat square pan, but since I knew I was making so many pancakes for this, I decided to get out my large electric skillet. That allowed me to make 6 pancakes at a time, so I only had to do about 5 or 6 batches (I don’t remember exactly how many).

Don’t worry if a little of the batter goes over, it still made a decent sized pancake. You want to use a 1/4 cup measuring cup for the pancakes to make them in a size that will fit well in the casserole pan.

After you finish making the pancakes, and they cool off a bit, you’ll need to cut them in half. Then layer the pancake halves in a 9×13 baking dish with the cut side down. You can do this one of two ways: either in two long rows all the way across the pan, or in a few rows along the short side of the pan. I chose to do two rows, but I had to keep pushing them up since they were sliding down. Next time, I plan to put the pancakes the other direction and see if they stay standing better.

In a medium bowl, whisk 6 eggs, heavy cream, milk, sugar, and vanilla until they are combined. Pour that as evenly as possible over the pancakes.

Cover the pan with a beeswax wrap, aluminum foil, or plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, preheat the oven to 350 and put the streusel together. In a small bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. If you want pecans on the entire dish, then those can be mixed in with the streusel now. I don’t like pecans and planned to only put it on half of the dish, so kept them aside for now.

Use a pastry blender (or your hands) to cut in the butter. This will be chunky, and that’s ok.

Remove the pancakes from the refrigerator and uncover the baking dish. Sprinkle the streusel over all of the pancakes, making sure it covers the entire dish.

If you are adding the pecans later, go ahead and add those now.

Bake the entire casserole for about an hour. You want this to cook until the center is set and the liquid has cooked into the pancakes. A glass dish works well for this because you can see in it while it’s cooking to determine if there is still liquid in the bottom.

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About Me

Stephanie is a native Floridian living in Texas who loves to be in the kitchen cooking, baking, organizing, and making delicious new foods for her family.
Also known as: boy-mom, wife, daughter, sister, photographer, nerd, adventure-seeker, beach-lover.

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